Artwork
Still life with flowers
Still life with flowers is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Ottmar Elliger. It dates from 1673 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Created in 1673, this oil painting presents a carefully arranged bouquet of pink, white, blue and red blossoms set in a glazed vase.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The piece serves primarily as a representation of a flower bouquet, showcasing the artist's focus on botanical subjects during the late seventeenth century.
Ottmar Elliger's 1673 oil painting presents a floral still life centered on a dense bouquet of flowers. The work depicts a collection of blooms arranged together, fitting within the genre of floral painting. While the composition highlights the natural beauty and variety of the depicted flowers, the available records do not specify particular symbolic meanings or allegorical messages associated with this specific arrangement.
The piece serves primarily as a representation of a flower bouquet, showcasing the artist's focus on botanical subjects during the late seventeenth century.
Technique & Style
The work is classified as a painting executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard support for seventeenth-century Dutch floral still lifes. Its physical dimensions are recorded as 86 cm in height by 68 cm in width. The genre is identified as floral painting, depicting a bouquet of flowers.
Stylistically, the piece belongs to the tradition of Dutch floral still life, a genre in which Ottmar Elliger was active. The attribution in the Wikidata record also lists Rachel Ruysch alongside Elliger as a creator, suggesting a possible collaborative or shared authorship context for the work.
History & Provenance
Created in 1673, the oil painting Still life with flowers is attributed to Ottmar Elliger, with some records also listing Rachel Ruysch as a creator. The work was executed on canvas and depicts a floral bouquet. Provenance records indicate the piece entered the collection of Adriaan van der Hoop, a significant private collector in Amsterdam.
Following Van der Hoop's ownership, the painting became part of the Amsterdam Museum's holdings before being transferred to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it remains part of the permanent collection today.
Context
Ottmar Elliger's 1673 oil painting Still life with flowers exemplifies Dutch Golden Age floral still life, characterized by meticulous botanical detail and compositional balance. Its depiction of a bouquet of flowers on canvas reflects the era's fascination with naturalistic representation and the symbolic use of flora, aligning with broader trends in 17th-century Dutch painting where such works often conveyed transience and moral themes. The piece is part of a significant corpus of still life painting from this period, with comparable works housed in major institutions like the Rijksmuseum and Amsterdam Museum, including pieces from the Adriaan van der Hoop collection.
Overview
Created in 1673, this oil painting presents a carefully arranged bouquet of pink, white, blue and red blossoms set in a glazed vase. The composition rests on a tabletop that also holds fruit and assorted objects, rendered with a high degree of realism characteristic of the Flemish Baroque tradition.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Ottmar Elliger (1633–1679) was a Flemish Baroque flower painter. According to the Netherlands Institute for Art History, he was born in Gothenburg, but he was trained in Antwerp by Daniel Seghers. His earliest dated…
